It “looks” neat, but fundamentally it is extra work. There is mass outrage on Google forums, as now there is at minimum an extra click (plus mouse movement) to sign out, switch accounts, go to settings, etc etc. Some may mock others for complaining about such miniscule extra effort, but the big question is WHY did they add this complexity? Does it actually contribute anything, or is it just pointless extra work? Was this just busy-work so someone could justify his continued employment?

I had a similar discussion with my friend today. Yes, it some operations require more clicks. But it definitely does look neat. And since Google does react to feedback quickly, you can expect them to improve on the design.

I found the icon controls to switch between Earth, Satellite and Map views confusing. The dropdown list to select layers is a nice improvement, but needs improvement: It disappears too quickly if I move the mouse out of the list area.

But how did Google’s search page actually look in January 2001? Thanks to Internet Archive,one can easily find out! The earliest working archive from January 2001 is from 19th January.

Google search page in January 2001

Google.com in January 2001 -- the search box.

As you can see, Google was already ‘Feeling lucky’. The logo is missing from the Internet Archive page, but you can see Google’s 2001 logo in the ‘Google at 10’ Search 2001 page:

Google at 10, Search 2001 page.

Google has come a long way from indexing just 1.3 billion pages in January 2001. In fact, by December 2001, Google had indexed over 3 billion pages and added ‘Images‘, ‘Groups‘, and ‘Directory‘ search options. Google continues to be the leader in Internet search in the US and in many other search markets.

When you install Google Chrome, Google slips in another application called the Google Update and Google sets up this application to automatically start up. Again, Google never asks for permission to install this piece of software and Google never asks if you want to allow this application to run at start up. Now, tell me why this is not spyware?

Even more interesting is the description of the GoogleUpdate.exe application. Have a look at this:

The ‘File description’ field says ‘Google Installer’. Is Google planning to install even more software without your explicit permission? Just like Apple did with Safari using Apple Update?

Google is Evil. Much more evil than Microsoft ever was and ever will be.

I uninstalled Chrome because Google Chrome is spyware. After uninstalling it, Google opened a feedback page, requesting for feedback. This is what I wrote:

1. You spy on me. Why do you have to associate each Chrome installation with a unique ID? 2. You spy on me. You indicate that you collect data, but not anonymously. So it is personally identifiable data. 3. You spy on me. So Google Chrome is spyware. 4. You spy on me. You import data from other browsers, including passwords, without asking. 5. When I use Chrome, my computer slows down to a crawl. Are you spying on me again? 6. When I uninstalled Chrome, you opened this feedback page in Internet Explorer, while my default browser is set to Firefox.

Really disappointed with Google and its obsession with spying on people and not being open about it. So much for Google’s Open Source bullshit when it’s not even open with its communication.

With the Vista ‘Border Padding’ set to 1, Firefox’s border looks like this:

Google Chrome’s windows border looks like this:

Notice how Chrome’s window border doesn’t respect the set border size. Something for Google to fix. The problem is especially apparent when the Border Padding is set to zero — Chrome’s window border looks just odd then.

Google Chrome has a cool built-in feature that lists the memory usage of all currently running browsers. This can be accessed by bringing up the Chrome Task Manager using Shift+Esc and then clicking on ‘Stats for nerds’. Or just type ‘about:memory’ into the Chrome Omnibar.

So I thought I would do a simple memory usage comparison by opening my most frequently used web applications.

“We are so, so happy with Google Chrome,” mumbled Mozilla CEO John Lilly through gritted teeth. “That most of our income is from Google has no bearing on me making this statement.” – http://notnews.today.com/?p=57